Review Party Recommends: Kenny Beats on the Broken Record Podcast
We here at Review Party Dot Com are here to whole-heartedly recommend an excellent podcast episode: the Kenny Beats on the Regional Sounds of Hip Hop episode of the Broken Record podcast.
The Broken Record podcast is no new kid on the block, they’ve been providing us with ass-kicking content featuring interviews and deep dives with some of music industry’s greatest creatives. The audio is clean, the conversations are compelling, a simple must-listen in any music nerd’s arsenal. Last week’s 90th episode however, is by far my favorite.
Monsieur Kenny Beats and Rick fucking Rubin. If those names don’t ring any bells, first of all, you have some catching up to do. Both absolutely giants on the industry, separated only by age. Kenny Beats has had a prolific career as both a DJ and a producer, pumping out critically acclaimed project after project with artists from every stylistic corner of hip hop, a swiss army knife of production able to bring out the best in any artist. Rick Rubin, legend of not only hip hop production and a member of the scene from its earliest days, but all reaches of music. Seriously, look at Rick Rubin’s production list on Wikipedia, it is insane. All that and he still just comes off as the most humble, down to earth guy. Truly everyone’s favorite wholesome, cool estranged uncle.
These two guys have a lot in common, and all of them are brushed on somewhere in the episode, but what really blossoms forth from their conversation is their love of music. This episode is two music nerds totally getting into some deep cut, niche corners of a musical genre, and the deeper they go, the more they can share with each other, the more the room buzzes with their geeky excitement. These two dudes are some of the most passionate people in the world about hip hop, and you get to hear them geek out about it. It is truly a joy to be on a fly on the wall and just be adjacent to that energy.
Vibes aside, the conversation between these two is informative and just as exciting. Their mutual knowledge of production lets them cut the beef out of the conversation and get right to the nitty gritty: this is what makes this regional sound of hip hop cool, this is how it does it, this is what inspired it and what it inspired, this is how it’s relevant to the hip hop genre today and going forward. Even if you don’t know what a mustard beat, 808, or acid bassline is, they’ll give you plenty of musical examples laid throughout the episode so even a total novice to the genre can keep up.
Of all the universal music fan appeal this podcast episode has, what warms my heart most about it is the special attention and reverence they pay when talking about creativity. Kenny explains that when playing these sounds for artists that have some attachment to their hometown, their roots, to the feelings they had when they were just making music in their basement to show their friends at school the next day, that it unlocks something within them. That creative energy, that joy, brings out something special in an artist, and Kenny waxing poetic about tapping into a special place in the artists’ psyche is more than proof of what makes him such a talented and prolific producer in hip hop today.
